Recalibrate

I only own Transformers in my daydreams.

Sequel to Reformat, can be read on its own.

"What part of 'NO' didn't you understand?" the blue Decepticon feline shouted at his black counterpart. "When I feel like getting my seals broken, I'll tell you. Now get out of my med-bay and leave me alone!"

Ravage whined, backing away with his head down, but despite his apologetic posture, he sent a com full of both need and anger. Glit was lonely. Ravage was lonely. The only one close to their size and make was the hated Autobot cassette Steeljaw. Soundwave approved. Why shouldn't they interface?

The Decepticon medic sighed. "Come back tomorrow and if there's not an emergency, I'll give you a massage." Ravage straightened, giving out a purr. During a massage or polish Glit usually overloaded his fellow cassette, and that left Ravage relaxed and content. "Not tonight. I'm tired." Despite himself, Glit smiled as Ravage trotted off. He'd finally patched up the last of the wounded and sent them off to rest in their quarters. He wanted the washracks and his berth, in that order.

Instead of heading for the common washracks, Glit used the one in the medbay. The solvent felt wonderful, cleansing the grime and dried energon on his frame. He only wished it could clean the strange emptiness inside him. He felt tired enough that he would recharge without the help of either Soundwave or high grade. For that reason, and because his would-be lover might try to pressure him if he went to the quarters he shared with Soundwave and the other cassettes, he chose the berth in the isolation room. As he drifted into recharge, he wondered again who he was before Soundwave and Shockwave put his spark in this frame.

He onlined slowly, enjoying the feeling of a good, defragmenting recharge. His good mood evaporated when he saw Soundwave standing just inside the door. He swung off the berth. "Yes, master?"

"Glit: did not return to quarters. Ravage, refused again. "

"I promised him a massage if the medbay doesn't get overwhelmed today. Hook's on call after first shift. That's contact, isn't it?" He enjoyed the massages as much as Ravage did; afterward they could curl together and simply enjoy being close.

Soundwave sighed. "Not enough. Glit: isolating again. Needs connection. Come and dock if need after meeting Ravage. "Tentacles reached out and touched Glit gently. Glit shoved them off and moved past him to the door. Swiftly, the tentacles wrapped around him. The medic did not struggle. "Glit. Why refuse Ravage? Need connection outside docking, outside work. "

Glit drew in air through his filters and blew it out slowly. Why couldn't Soundwave understand? Wasn't he supposed to be a telepath? "Ravage and I are opposites," Glit said. As he spoke, Soundwave's tentacles slipped into gaps and lightly rubbed. Glit relaxed into the offered comfort, letting the tentacles support him. "He kills, I heal. He comes to me covered in the energon he sheds, when I'm covered in the energon from mechs I repair. He hides in shadow and I stay where any mech can find me."

"Ravage and Glit, serve Decepticon cause, provide needed services, " Soundwave pointed out. "Ravage, Glit, same size, same make. Both mine, so can trust. Both lonely. "

"He's lonely because there's no one he can trust but us and the other cassettes. I'm lonely because part of me is missing." The tentacles released the blue medic as he turned to look at his creator, his weight back on his own pedes. "Tell me who I was, Soundwave! Tell me where I came from. I need to know!"

Soundwave looked down at his cassette head cleaner. "Glit, created from dying mech. Otherwise, waste of strong spark, needed skills. Better as cassette."

Glit slumped. "That doesn't explain anything," he said quietly, accepting that Soundwave would never tell him more. Everyone else he asked claimed not to know more. Only Shockwave knew besides Soundwave. Shockwave remained on Cybertron, and if Glit never saw him again, it would be far too soon.

Someone called for a medic. Soundwave left as Glit hurried into the medbay where two grunts hauled a third onto a medical berth. The third mech's arm hung wrong. As he climbed onto the berth to look at the injury, Glit swore he'd find his past one way or another. Then he put his mind on his work.

The day wore on, as patients came in. Between them, Glit restocked his toolboxes for the next raid. Frenzy and Rumble came in to get some dents worked out after a brawl and brought him some energon. Finally, toward the end of his shift, Skywarp peeked in, covered with glue. Glit groaned. "Don't tell me. Just get over here. "He got out the solvent. "You owe me big this time, Skywarp." The purple and black Seeker hunched his shoulders as the medic cleaned him up, removing the evidence of Skywarp's latest prank.

"The usual, then?" Skywarp ventured, when Glit finished.

"Yeah. You know where to leave it. Now get out before someone sees you in here." Skywarp nodded and warped out. Glit put the solvent away, just before Ravage padded in. The spy rubbed against his fellow cassette and purred. Glit checked the time and commed Hook," You're on call."

"Yeah, get some rest, kid," Hook told him gruffly. Glit walked off with Ravage, looking forward to a somewhat peaceful evening.

He stood in grey nothingness. Voices called him, pulled him, but there was no direction, only longing, only the desperate need to find the owners of those voices. But no matter how he ran, how he called, how he commed, he could not find them, and he knew it was his fault they were lost….

The medic catapulted to awareness. His chassis burned while warnings flashed in his processor that he was overheating, only to fade as the familiar sights of Soundwave's quarters calmed him and allowed his his systems to slow down to normal . Ravage whined on the floor by the berth. Glit looked down at him, puzzled, until the black cassette sent an image of tumbling down while Glit thrashed on the berth. Heavy footsteps preceded Soundwave's entrance. He knelt by the berth. Without argument, the cassette head-cleaner folded and went into Soundwave's chest.

The next day Starscream stumbled in to get some dents out and told Glit "This place is going to be busy in a few days," which meant another raid for energon. Knowing he'd need some decent sleep, the medic waited until after his shift and found the energon wine Skywarp owed him. Rumble and Frenzy hauled him to his berth that night after he started singing, to the entertainment of the other Decepticons in the rec room.

In the morning, Soundwave projected disappointment. Glit didn't care.

He had his gear ready when the announcement went out . "Stay here," Soundwave instructed when they reached the power plant. He sent reminders of Glit charging back at the last moment, barely making their lines in time to join the retreat, and the two times when Ravage and Buzzsaw needed to find him because he missed the call. "Glit needed. Do not go into danger. Let wounded come to you."

"All right, all right," the medic grumbled. But within a cycle Laserbeak got a hole in his wing, not far from Glit. The medic raced out and got a patch on the hole. He saw someone else go down and told Laserbeak to go on. "I just need to stop the bleeding and get back, " he assured the bird cassette. He got the last leak sealed just as the next shout for help rang out. He got one com from Laserbeak . "I'm busy, come find me," he sent back, and concentrated on his core function.

In the middle of the violence and noise, Glit's world narrowed to the next patient. He stopped bleeding, patched holes, teased metal and dirt from wounds and shoved parts back where they belonged. He ignored danger, disregarded faction, and focused saving lives. Created to heal, doing his core function gave him a fierce joy- knowing that each mech he saved defeated Death, his first and worse enemy. That helped him deal with the still grey forms left when the enemy won.

More than once, he'd missed the call to retreat because of a wounded mech. He'd finish, hide, and contact Soundwave to be taken back. Someone always came because they needed him. He had to leave the patient behind. Glit carried no weapons, and cassettes, by definition, had to be small enough to fit in a carrier mech chest plates. The cassette head-cleaner couldn't exactly move or carry a normal grunt. He could only give them a chance to survive.

"Glit, come now," Soundwave commanded through the com. "Sending Buzzsaw to bring."

The Decepticon medic cursed. He was wrist-deep in a chassis, looking for the source of a gushing leak. The mech was off-line , but if Glit could just get to that line-there! He got it sealed before he threw a temporary patch over the hole in the mech's chasis. Finally he threw supplies into his toolbox, sending a testy, "I'm coming, I'm coming!" Sealing and securing his toolbox to his hips, he took off even as he heard the shout to retreat.

Two mechs, yellow and red, grabbed him. "What the frag!" he screamed. The Autobots always left him alone once they knew he only repaired, never attacked. He'd fixed these two more than once. As the mechs forced stasis cuffs over his forelimbs, he bellowed, "Let me go, let me go!" He sent a frantic appeal through his com and got a prompt response as the bird cassette doze on the yellow mech. The red one shoved Glit down and fired, forcing Buzzsaw back even as jets arrived. The largest landed. Glit saw Ravage leading other Decepticons their way as the Autobots loaded his former patient, but the yellow mech grabbed and threw him in the jet after his patient. He heard Buzzsaw shrieking and Ravage yowling with rage, but the sounds faded away as he landed in the jet. "Fine thanks I get for saving your life, Autobot," he snarled at the still form.

"And what would old Buckethead say when that flying terror told him whose life you just saved?" the jet asked and took off. Glit almost landed on top of his patient.

"Scrap," he muttered, as he took in the black and white coloring and the doorwings.